Skip to main contentTriMet is considering a fare hike. The transit agency’s directors debated the issue in a recorded “strategy session” earlier this month, igniting vehement opposition from community activists who are pushing to eliminate fares entirely.
If the agency does raise fares, it would be the first across-the-board increase in over a decade.
A two-and-a-half-hour ride on the system currently costs $2.50, a price that has remained unchanged since the city did away with both Fareless Square and its tiered zone system in 2012 during a financial crunch. Seniors, youth, people with disabilities, and low-income riders can pay less.
The reason, outlined in a presentation given by agency staff at the October meeting, is simple: Amid declining ridership and unrelenting inflation, revenue isn’t keeping up with expenses.
The agency was already in the red back in 2019. It considered raising fares at the time, but the pandemic put those plans on hold and aggravated the agency’s financial difficulties as riders fled and fare revenue plummeted.
Federal stimulus funds filled the budget gap, temporarily. But now the agency needs new revenue to maintain existing service, board members said.
“If we had not had the stimulus funding, we would have been taking very serious cuts,” Nancy Young, TriMet’s budget director, told the agency’s directors at the Oct. 5 meeting.
During the four-hour meeting, TriMet directors debated the pros and cons of raising fares, but did not consider any specific proposal. Members of the seven-member board were sharply divided on the issue.
Board president Linda Simmons said the agency “needs to consider a fare increase” in order to “grow and maintain service.”
Others pushed back, noting the agency has other ways to raise money. Fares are only 16% of the transit agency’s revenue. State payroll taxes and federal funds make up the rest.
“Do we really need to rely on fare revenue?” asked board member Kathy Wai. “Public transit is a human right.”
Activists echoed this opinion. “This is the last thing we should do,” Maia Vásconez-Taylor of Bus Riders Unite told WW. “The system is already not accessible. Fares are a barrier. We’re trying to get rid of barriers.”
She called TriMet’s decision to first raise the issue in a meeting with no public comment “shady.”
The board is scheduled to discuss the issue again at a retreat Nov. 9.